Paul Ryan's weekend

By Maggie Haberman

08/05/12 12:20 PM EDT

The Paul Ryan-for-VP chatter has heated up in the past two days, thanks in part to him updating his Federal Election Commission filings for his PAC, suddenly canceling a planned appearance at an anti-Obamacare rally and winning praise from Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal as the best pick.

His aides have cautioned not to read too much into anything. From the Politicker story on this:

Mr. Ryan was scheduled to speak at the Americans for Prosperity Foundation’s Defending the American Dream Summit in Washington tonight, but he cancelled the appearance. ...

Organizers told us they were unsure why Mr. Ryan pulled out of the planned speech. ...

Kevin Seifert, a spokesman for Mr. Ryan’s campaign, echoed Ms. Anderson’s explanation saying the congressman “wanted to get back and see his family.” He also said Americans for Prosperity was warned this might happen. ...

The cancelled speech isn’t the only thing that caused speculation to swirl around Mr. Ryan this afternoon. Eagle-eyed Politico reporter Ken Vogel also noted Mr. Ryan’s political action committee, Prosperity PAC, filed amended versions of its three most recent monthly fundraising reports today.

“Preparing for big announcement w FEC cleanup?” Mr. Vogel asked.

Mr. Seifert said the reports had to be amended when Mr. Ryan’s staff noticed a donation made in April was accidentally counted for both the Prosperity Action Committee and the congressman’s joint action committee, a mistake which carried over into subsequent reports.

You can come up with almost endless iterations of what does or does not feed into speculation about someone believed to be under consideration by Mitt Romney. But as the Marco Rubio drumbeat has grown louder in recent weeks, so have the calls for Ryan (as we noted yesterday, William Kristol and Stephen Hayes made a case for one or the other in the Weekly Standard yesterday). Campaigns prefer as much dramatic anticipation ahead of time as possible, and the current VP, Joe Biden, famously told reporters it wasn't him in 2008 on the Democratic ticket.

A senior Romney adviser told the traveling press corp late last week that Romney still does not agree with the Medicare cuts in the Ryan budget, a fact that would be explored at length if the Wisconsin congressman were to be on the ticket. He would end up discussing that budget plan rather frequently, a fight Democrats would be eager for.

But for Republicans, there is a feeling that, if Romney went in that direction, he would be making the bold pick some in the party have urged him to.